Vietnamese immersion program could be state's first

Artist Hoanglan Nguyen, 19, top, paints a mural depicting the "Origin of the Vietnamese People" at the 2012 Tet festival in Garden Grove Park. Orange County is home to about 189,000 Vietnamese residents.LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A coalition of Garden Grove Unified School District community members is pushing for a Vietnamese/English language-immersion program, saying the first-of-its-kind effort in California would deepen students' cultural understanding and lead to new opportunities.

A 10-member team, led by Garden Grove trustee Bao Nguyen, has gathered 328 signatures on a petition at iviet.org and is hoping to see the Vietnamese language-immersion program put in place by fall 2014.

"This is not just a program for Vietnamese students, but an option for all parents," said Nguyen, who is trilingual in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Immersion programs teach all school subjects in a combination of a target language and English starting in kindergarten; programs typically offer either an equal amount of each language or adjust the language percentages as students become proficient.

Nguyen, who previously championed an effort to include a Seal of Biliteracy on diplomas of qualified students, said the immersion program would create stronger ties to Orange County's large Vietnamese population, increase cultural understanding and lead to greater job prospects for participants.

He also said research shows that students who are bilingual show greater cognitive agility.

LARGE VIETNAMESE POPULATION

Orange County is home to about 189,000 Vietnamese residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Five of the 10 California cities with the largest Vietnamese populations – including Westminster, home to Little Saigon – are in Orange County.

Garden Grove Unified – the county's third-largest school district – enrolls 14,567 Vietnamese students out of nearly 48,000 students, according to district spokesman Alan Trudell. About 5,700 district students are Vietnamese speakers, out of about 11,000 countywide, according to state data.

Garden Grove offers Vietnamese language classes at three of the district's seven high schools, according to Trudell. Next year, it will expand the foreign language study program to include at least one more High School and at least one of 10 intermediate schools.

But immersion advocates argue that second Languages are easier to acquire before age 12, and that immersion strategies aimed at elementary students lead to stronger fluency.

"By the time they get to high school when they take foreign language classes it's almost too late for them to be fully fluent," said immersion team member Vy Hoang, a high school math teacher in Los Angeles who volunteers as a Vietnamese instructor on weekends.

Orange County has a handful dual-language immersion programs in English and Spanish and two in English and Mandarin immersion.

California Department of Education's list of two-way immersion programs, last updated in 2010-11, includes no Vietnamese programs.

Hoang said the organizers hope to model their program on efforts started this year at White Center Heights Elementary School in Washington state and in 2010 at Stafford Primary School in Texas.

Immersion program backers will hold a forum Saturday to gather community input. Several district officials are expected to attend, including Gabriela Mafi, the incoming superintendent.

Nguyen said he would like Garden Grove's district staff to prepare a report on the feasibility of the program after the forum, with a goal of obtaining board approval in July. If all goes well, a program could be designed to start in fall 2014, he said.

Artist Hoanglan Nguyen, 19, top, paints a mural depicting the "Origin of the Vietnamese People" at the 2012 Tet festival in Garden Grove Park. Orange County is home to about 189,000 Vietnamese residents. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Stephanie Bui participates in the annual Tet festival at Monroe Elementary in Fountain Valley in this file photo. A coalition at Garden Grove Unified is working toward a Vietnamese/English language-immersion program in the district. MARK MARTINEZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Martin Abeyta, left, performs during the annual Tet celebration at Monroe Elementary in Fountain Valley in this file photo. Garden Grove Unified enrolls 14,567 Vietnamese students out of nearly 48,000 students. MARK MARTINEZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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